David Gamut, a dynamic character, is introduced as a minor character. He is consistently described physically, as he does not seem to meet the expectations of a man. When the word man was first used, it was used to tease David. According to the narrator, “He had all the bones and joints as other men, without any of their proportions” (Cooper 7). He is a singing teacher from Connecticut and religious follower of Calvinism, joins the walk through the forest to visit Alice and Cora’s father. David is a Calvinist who believes in the doctrine of predestination. He teaches sacred music to children, however Hawkeye does not believe in singing as a profession and mocks him. David does not like fighting, and is not a fighting person but still survives
David sets off on his task to find out who he is, or his departure, when he meets a young girl named Sophie which results in David asking plenty of questions. Sophie is the first deviation that David ever meets however she was just like any ordinary kid. This confuses David because he was always told that Deviations are the Devils child and that they should be killed. He says "clearly there must be a mistake somewhere… surely that couldn't be enough to make her ‘hateful in the
Everything David did that was courageous. Most importantly, he survived the Nazi’s horrible control, showing his mother had influenced him. Even though David had a difficult childhood, David’s mother helped him a great
Ultimately, David evolves and chooses to become an insurgent in order to escape the dire situations in Waknuk.
Being the archetypal youth, David performs justice to his role as an archetype. While living with his uncle, David kept getting the idea that his uncle was trying to take his inheritance away from him. David’s uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, starts to prove David’s suspicion, when he sends David to the side of the house. Due to the lightning, David discovers that there are hardly any steps and he could have fallen and died. Uncle Ebenezer brushes the idea off of David’s mind, but continues to try to kill David in order to obtain the inheritance. As a second attempt, Uncle Ebenezer takes David along to see Hoseason at the Queen’s Ferry. Hoseason, partnered up with Ebenezer, takes David on the ship to “look around”. As soon as David gets on the ship, he is knocked unconscious and taken away. David realizes his uncle’s truth when he is taken away, “Help! Help! Murder! -and my uncle turned round where he was sitting and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror” (Stevenson 36). Being the archetypal youth, David has already gone through external enemies such as Ebenezer and Hoseason. Ebenezer tried to kill David by tricking him into climbing a dangerous stairway. When that fails, Ebenezer gets his nephew kidnapped and tries to arrange for David’s death through a group of seamen. It is David’s first battle against his uncle as he finds out what his uncle really is and what his uncle wants. Throughout his journey, David meets Alan who becomes his best friend and together, they fight the men on the ship. David explains the outcome of the fight as,
Uncle Axel for his knowledge and educating him for the things that he never knew about or were beyond his imagination. Uncle Axel provided him the confidence of accepting and believing in his ability and himself. For example, Uncle Axel asks David “What do you think it is that makes a man a man?' I started on the Definition. What makes a man a man is something inside him. No, what makes man is mind; it's not a thing, it's a quality” (80). In this quote we see that David learns an important lesson about the image of man. Uncle Axel seems to explain it well but David wonders how he came up with this because if he was to ask Joseph this question he would’ve said something like" What makes a man a man is how he look" (80). David looks up to Axel like a step father he is given him advice for the world and his surroundings. Sophie for her kindness, strength, and her heartwarming personality she has showed this when her foot was stuck under the rock and by always having a smile on her face. Sophie was very kind to David when they first encountered, she showed much affection towards David. David remarks towards Sophie were, “She likes to have fun, be excited, and be happy" (7). David comments, "She is empathetic” (8). When seeing all these qualities of Sophie, David set a mindset she was a norm. Therefore, when finding out that Sophie has six toes, he was very astonished because throughout David’s life he has been taught that deviations are a sin. When encountering one it made David think the exact opposite. This caused David to question that Sophie could not be a deviation because she is found to be very out going. So he realizes that Sophie couldn’t be portrayed as an evil person. When David, "Finds it hard to see how the very small toe on each foot could make much difference either."(55). David begins to trust her
David Gamut is first presented in the novel as an "ungainly" man whose outward appearance reveals an inner awkwardness and inappropriateness for the frontier.
(Hord Zinn). David is a telepathic boy living in a post apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, called the “Tribulation” in the book The Chrysalids. David manages to change the world and the vision of mutation and deviants. David would have never able to do that without the people around that changed him. This Essay will explore how Sophie, Uncle Axel and Gordon though minor characters have a major impact on David's development.
his father and dead mother. David's father has an idealized vision of his son as
A recurring theme in the character of David Bell is his inflated opinion of himself. Chapter Two begins with David stating, “I was an extremely handsome young man” (DeLillo 2.11). David continues to describe his appearance in an almost scientific manner that would appear to be simply a factual statement. When David equates his relationship with his mirror as therapeutic, however, we see how much he stakes his opinion of himself on the way he looks. “I was blue-eyed David Bell. Obviously my life depended on this fact” (DeLillo 2.11).
Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to
Although both the previous events did put David into an adverse position, the following experience changed David’s outlook on life for the better. Finally there was someone to tell David the true meaning of mankind, Uncle Axel. Uncle Axel tells him to be proud of his telepathic abilities, instead of praying to be what everyone else thinks is the true image. Uncle Axel also changes David's outlook on the true image of man, he explains to him how it's not one's physical features that define him, but what's in his mind.
At the age of 5 years old, not only did he began to take showers with his father, but when they went to the beach club, his mother bathed him in the shower in the presence of other naked women. By the age of 6 years old, David noticed the power men had over women, “when a male entered the women’s side of the bathhouse, all the women shrieked”. (Gale Biography). At the age of 7 and 8 years old, he experienced a series of head accidents. First, he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. A few months later he ran into a wall and again suffered head injuries. Then he was hit in the head with a pipe and received a four inch gash in the forehead. Believing his natural mother died while giving birth to him was the source of intense guilt, and anger inside David. His size and appearance did not help matters. He was larger than most kids his age and not particularly attractive, which he was teased by his classmates. His parents were not social people, and David followed in that path, developing a reputation for being a loner. At the age of 14 years old David became very depressed after his adoptive mother Pearl, died from breast cancer. He viewed his mother’s death as a monster plot designed to destroy him. (Gale Biography). He began to fail in school and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania. He sets fires,
is a fight just to survive for the next day . As a child David is taught a very harsh way of
David is a man who was born with physical disabilities, the issue of being 4 feet tall and people always thinking he’s a small child. David does not know life without this disability, so for him that disability is his norm. David has went through a lot of obstacles in life and has come out to be very successful. He has handled all of his challenges with such positivity. David has a few different important factors that enabled him to achieve his goals in life.
Throughout the novel, David, the protagonist is abused and tortured several times by his very own father, Joseph Strorm and his recently discovered Uncle, Gordon. David’s father is a strict believer in his religion and is unyielding on the subject of mutations and blasphemy’s. If anyone neglects to follow his beliefs and rules, he has serious consequences for them, like with David, once Joseph found out that David knows a blasphemy, he immediately subjected to abusing him for answers. David’s father continues to beat him until he receives the information he demands. David has been abused more than once by his father and this is evident when David says, “I knew well enough what that meant, but I knew well too, that with my father in his present mood, it would happened whether I told or not. I set my jaw,